6th session of the Belarusian-Russian Open Skies Intergovernmental Commission to take place in Minsk

On April 10-11, 2012 Minsk will host the 6th session of the Belarusian-Russian Open Skies Intergovernmental Commission.

Experts of the Foreign and Defense Ministries of Belarus and Russia will take part in the session.

The agenda of the session includes practical implementation issues of the Open Skies Treaty within the Belarus-Russia Group of States Parties as well as prospects of further cooperation within the framework of the Open Skies Consultative Commission.

Note: The foreign ministers of 25 countries including Belarus signed The Open Skies Treaty on March 24, 1992 in Helsinki. The Treaty entered into force on January 1, 2002. Presently, 34 countries are parties to this Treaty.

The treaty is an integral part of the Pan-European security system in military and political areas and complements the existing regimes of conventional arms control and confidence and security-building measures.

The main objectives of the Treaty are to establish the Open Skies regime to conduct observation flights over territories of States Parties; to develop confidence and security in the Euro-Atlantic region, and to facilitate control over the arms control agreements.

The Belarusian-Russian OS Intergovernmental Commission was formed in accordance with Art. 2 of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation on cooperation within the Belarus-Russia Group of States Parties of the OS Treaty on February 21, 1995 with a view to the practical issues associated with the implementation of the Treaty provisions.

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